zootaxa - Magnolia press

Zootaxa 1447: 27–45 (2007)
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ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition)
Copyright © 2007 · Magnolia Press
ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition)
ZOOTAXA
A new species of Glassfrog (Anura: Centrolenidae) from the lowlands of
northwestern Ecuador, with comments on centrolenid osteology
JUAN M. GUAYASAMIN1, 3 & LINDA TRUEB2
1
Museo de Zoología, Centro de Biodiversidad y Ambiente, Escuela de Biología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12
de Octubre y Roca, Aptdo. 17-01-2184, Quito, Ecuador. E-mail: [email protected]
2
Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
3
Present address: Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561
Abstract
A new species of Glassfrog is described from the lowlands of northwestern Ecuador. The species is placed in the genus
Centrolene and differs from the genera, Cochranella and Hyalinobatrachium, by having humeral spines in males. It differs from congenerics by having a uniformly green dorsal coloration, conspicuous humeral spine, and white iris with
clearly defined black reticulations. Detailed cranial and postcranial osteological descriptions are provided, and some of
osteological features that seem to be peculiar to centrolenids are discussed. A new suite of traits to characterize Glassfrogs and simplify comparisons among species is proposed.
Key words: Centrolenidae, Centrolene, Ecuador, New species, Osteology
Resumen
Describimos una nueva especie de centrolénido de las tierras bajas del noroccidente del Ecuador. La especie nueva difiere de las especies en los géneros Cochranella y Hyalinobatrachium porque los machos tienen espinas humerales. Se
diferencia de especies del género Centrolene por tener una coloración dorsal verde uniforme, espina humeral conspicua y
un iris blanco brillante con evidente reticulación negra. Presentamos una descripción osteológica detallada de la especie
nueva y discutimos algunas características osteológicas que parecen ser únicas a las ranas de cristal. Finalmente, proponemos un nuevo set de atributos para caracterizar especies de centrolénidos y así facilitar su comparación.
Palabras claves: Centrolenidae, Centrolene, Ecuador, especie nueva, osteología
Introduction
The anuran family Centrolenidae contains 139 recognized species (Amphibiaweb, 2006) distributed throughout the Neotropics. The monophyly of the family is supported by morphological (Taylor 1951, Hayes & Starrett 1980), behavioral (Ruíz-Carranza & Lynch 1991), and molecular characters (Darst & Cannatella 2004,
Faivovich et al. 2005, Wiens et al. 2005, Frost et al. 2006, Grant et al. 2006). Recent publications (CisnerosHeredia & McDiarmid 2006, Guayasamin et al. 2006) provide a review of the generic and infrageneric classification of Glassfrogs. A particularly useful morphological characteristic to distinguish these frogs from other
anurans (except rhacophorids, hyperoliids, and some species of the genus Litoria; Tyler & Davies 1978, Liem
Accepted by M. Vences: 31 Jan. 2007; published: 12 Apr. 2007
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